I was pondering how we all talk over this OTR program or that one this morning and found myself wondering if, if a person could go back and tell the people back then that their programs would still be listened to 50, 60, 70 and more yrs later if they would believe it or not? I mean the movie studios back in the old days held burning days to get rid of old movies that were taking up room in their vaults so they could make room for the newest ones so it seems clear that they didn't expect anyone to want to watch last years movie again so would the radio people have been any different? We human beings seem to have a knack for underestimating how popular a given media product is likely to be. It's interesting I think that media produced in the early part of the 20th century in a world that was so different in some ways from the world we know now is still so popular in the early part of the present century. Technology has moved on from the early days of radio, but the OTR shows are still as popular in their way as they were when they were 1st aired. Some of them even became almost household names in their time I think. I have a multipart interview about the history of "The Shadow" for example where the actress who played Margo Lane (for at least part of the run) spoke of how she would mention this show or that in which she had acted (at a party or job interview) and people didn't regognize the programs, but when she mentioned "The Shadow" everyone knew that series. Yet so many series weren't really preserved back then. Some only have 1 or 2 episodes still in existance. It's a real shame.

I think the very fact that they did even not bother to copyright the recordings back in the day is evidence of how little they valued the product. For them, it was of the moment, and when the show ended, the moment was gone--and so was the show. Many of the programs were performed live and not repeated after the initial broadcast. A show produced on the East Coast might be recorded to be broadcast a few hours later on the West Coast, and reference recordings were made to send to advertisers as tangible proof that their ads ran according to contract, but other than that, it was a once-and-done process. It's quite a far cry from today when DVD sales are calculated in as part of the basic business model.